# Digital showrooms: how to sell cars outside your website

> Most dealers have one shop window online: the website and the portals. But the best sales rarely happen in a 200-car inventory with a filter. They happen when a customer receives five relevant cars in one link. This guide shows how to build digital showrooms per customer, campaign and channel, and how to measure what they do.

**Source:** https://carruslink.com/en/guides/digitale-showrooms-bilforhandler
**Last updated:** 2026-08-19

## Short answer (TL;DR)

A digital showroom is a shareable page with a curated selection of cars, sent to a specific customer, campaign or channel. Pick 3-8 cars, add clean photos and prices, send the link, and watch who opens and clicks. Use opens and clicks as a sales signal instead of calling blind. A showroom containing the whole stock is not a showroom, it is another website.

## Why the website alone does not convert

- The customer is sent into a 200-car inventory and has to filter down to the relevant ones
- The salesperson emails five links and nobody can see whether the customer opened them
- Campaigns (lease returns, last diesels of the year, ex-fleet cars) have no single destination
- Partners and leasing companies get a spreadsheet instead of a presentable selection
- There is no data on which cars the customer actually clicked, only whether they replied
- Follow-up becomes 'did you see my email?' instead of 'I can see you looked at the Passat'

## How to build digital showrooms that sell

### 1. Pick the purpose before the cars

A showroom has one purpose: one customer, one campaign or one channel. Mixed purposes create mixed selections, and mixed selections do not convert. Write the purpose down before picking the first car.

### 2. Curate 3-8 cars, no more

Under three looks empty, over eight becomes an inventory. Stay in the range and leave out the cars you would rule out yourself. Curation is the entire value.

### 3. Consistent photos across every car

One photo shot in the rain next to four clean ones drags the whole selection down. Run the images through photo clean-up so the selection looks shot in one place.

### 4. Write one line per car on why this one

'Same equipment as the one you looked at, 40,000 km less' sells. A pasted equipment list does not. One line per car, written for the recipient.

### 5. Make the next step obvious

Book a test drive, call, or send a message. One action per car and one for the showroom as a whole. Without an action it is a slideshow.

### 6. Send the link in the channel the customer uses

SMS for customers who reply to SMS, email for business, and the link straight into the existing portal thread where possible. The channel decides the open rate.

### 7. Follow up on behaviour, not on time

If the customer opens the showroom and clicks two cars, the salesperson calls the same day with those two cars. No open after two days: new selection or a different channel.

### 8. Reuse showrooms as campaigns

Ex-lease cars, cars under a price threshold, vans for business. Standing campaign showrooms can be updated continuously and shared in ads and newsletters.

## What digital showrooms give you

- **Curated selection per customer** — The customer sees five relevant cars instead of filtering the whole inventory.
- **Behaviour as a sales signal** — Opens and clicks per car show who is warm, and what they are looking at.
- **Everything on the customer record** — The showroom and its activity live on the customer, not in a salesperson's inbox.
- **Campaigns get a destination** — Ex-lease, business cars and price groups can be shared as one link in every channel.
- **Connected to customer wishes** — The wishlist register supplies the selection, the showroom delivers it to the customer.
- **Shorter path to a test drive** — The action sits inside the showroom, so the customer can book without writing an email.

## Email with links vs. digital showroom

| Area | Email with links (typical today) | Digital showroom |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Presentation | Raw URLs in an email body | Curated page with consistent photos and prices |
| Number of cars | Everything the salesperson could find | 3-8 selected cars with a reason |
| Measurement | None beyond replies | Opens and clicks per car |
| Follow-up | 'Did you see my email?' | 'You looked at the Passat, it is free tomorrow' |
| Campaigns | A new email every time | One link that can be updated and reused |
| Handover | Sits in the salesperson's inbox | Sits on the customer record |

_The table describes typical workflow. Impact depends on how consistently the selection is curated and followed up._

## Frequently asked questions about digital showrooms

### What is a digital showroom?

A shareable page with a selected set of cars that a dealer sends to a specific customer, campaign or channel. It contains photos, prices and an action, and the dealer can see who opens and clicks. It is not the full inventory, but a curated selection.

### How many cars should a showroom contain?

Three to eight. Below three the selection looks empty and random, above eight the customer starts filtering instead of choosing. The goal is that the customer can take in every car in one view without long scrolling.

### Does a showroom replace the website?

No. The website and portals create the traffic, the showroom converts it. Showrooms are used when you know something about the recipient, so after first contact, inside a campaign, or in a channel with a defined audience.

### How do you measure whether a showroom works?

On open rate, clicks per car and test drives booked from the showroom. Behaviour matters more than replies: a customer who opens three times without replying is warmer than one who answers 'thanks, I'm looking'.

### Can showrooms be used for business and leasing companies?

Yes, and this is often where they work best. Instead of a spreadsheet of VINs the recipient gets a presentable selection with consistent photos that can be forwarded internally without the dealer building a new document.

### What is the biggest pitfall?

Adding too many cars. A showroom with 40 cars is a copy of the website and loses the entire advantage. The second pitfall is mixed photography, where a couple of poor shots drag the whole selection down.

## See a digital showroom built on your own stock

30-minute demo. We build a showroom on your cars, send it the way a customer would receive it, and show how opens and clicks land as tasks for the salesperson.

— CARRUSLiNK · https://carruslink.com/en/guides/digitale-showrooms-bilforhandler